Immigrants getting better deal from press coverage

By ANGELA GREGORY



The New Zealand media has improved its coverage of immigrants in the last decade but there remains a tendency to focus on Asians and negative aspects of immigration, say Massey University researchers.

Professor of sociology Paul Spoonley and research fellow Andrew Trlin have reviewed print media coverage of immigrants between 1993 and 2003 and say more needs to be done to encourage cultural diversity in reporting given New Zealand's evolving multicultural identity.

"Immigration is one of the key issues of contemporary New Zealand and information largely supplied by the media is a necessary precondition for New Zealanders to understand what is, and should happen," said Professor Spoonley.

They found that while the mid-1990s provided some undesirable examples of stereotypical reporting the media performance had improved to provide more nuanced and detailed coverage of immigrants and immigration.

However, the researchers said there was still a tendency to focus on immigrants from Asia and negative aspects such as their driving habits or the pressure they placed on infrastructure and services.

The media often used "crude all-inclusive labels" such as "Asian" for particular individuals and groups where there were significant cultural, linguistic and economic differences.

The study, carried out as part of the New Settlers Programme, found performance among the print media was mixed.

The content analysis began with the "Inv-Asian" articles in some Auckland community newspapers (Suburban Newspapers Group) in 1993 which articulated certain stereotypical and negative images about Asian immigrants.

That approach was compounded with media attention given to the anti-immigrant politics of Winston Peters and New Zealand First from 1996.

"Such politicalisation of immigration gave rise to the tendency to see Asians as problem immigrants which shrouded the significant differences between Asian communities and focused attention on them, largely to the exclusion of immigrants from other origins."

Over time the print media became less sympathetic to political anti-immigration rhetoric. By the late 1990s there was some concern that Asian immigrants were losing interest in New Zealand and the emphasis began to shift to the economic benefits of immigration with more detailed and balanced reporting.

The views of Asian communities were given more prominence, but there remained ongoing negative coverage concerning criminal activities like kidnapping, extortion and blackmail. The researchers said such criminalisation of Asian immigrants repeated the "moral panic" around the immigration of Pacific peoples in earlier decades.

The study said media attention concerning refugees and their arrival emerged in the late 1990s with concern over "bogus" refugees. The distinction between the officially sanctioned annual quota of 750 refugees and asylum seekers was misunderstood or not adequately explained.

But the researchers found a distinct contrast between "negative and stereotypical" general news reporting and editorials, columns or in-depth features using detailed and personalised material which provided a more positive role in shaping the debate on immigration.